Flakes
by Fabled Wings
Summary: Set a few months after the WDC. In which IV visits Rio Kamishiro in hospital and learns a few things. Took a few liberties with canon on this.


Flakes

"You're scared."

"I am _not_."

"You totally are."

"Shut the fuck up, Ryoga."

They were quite a sight, walking in step on the streets of Heartland City, exchanging bits of banter between them despite there being a metre's distance in the middle. Both were relatively well-known duelists by that time, and it struck everyone who saw them as odd to see them in the company of each other, since it was no longer a secret that they were at complete loggerheads. The media were still making up all sorts of tabloids – inane guesses to the relationship these two duelists may have, but not once have they struck close to the truth.

And if either Shark or IV could help it, no one outside of their families will ever know.

"It's not too late to turn back, you know," Shark quipped, lips tugged up in a smug smirk. "If you're so… nervous."

"I don't run from my mistakes," IV grumbled, eyes focused on the concrete path ahead of him. The atmosphere surrounding the two of them seemed to crackle; the citizens of Heartland City thought it best to stay a safe distance from them, like how one would avoid going outdoors in a storm when the clouded sky was rumbling with thunder and lightning.

"Hmm, that's true. It doesn't hide the fact that you're practically shivering in your pants."

"I am _not_."

"Are too."

"… I am not having this conversation with you," IV cleared his throat and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Shark had been vehemently against the idea in the first place. The World Duel Carnival was months behind them, but he was still wary of IV. And it was understandable – even if it was Tron that had initiated IV's actions, Shark was not sure if he could ever forgive IV completely for what he had done, having thought him to be the main perpetrator for too long a time. They mostly stuck to avoiding each other as much as possible outside of the duelling arena to prevent any sort of confrontation, since everything was over and done with.

They were presently in each other's company and walking through the heart of the city, headed to the hospital Shark's sister resided in. Shark would not have allowed his sister to have her way – he had argued with her on more than one occasion on the subject – but when she pulled the doctor into the discussion one day and he had agreed that it would _benefit_ her condition, Shark conceded with a loud huff.

She had demanded for her saviour to visit her. She had called IV her _saviour_ of all things. And Shark had agreed, because she was his sister.

Shark wrinkled his nose at that memory. It had not been a pleasant conversation.

The two WDC finalists proceeded towards their destination in grudging silence. Shark derived amusement from the fact that the Arclight was actually scared of the upcoming visit. Shark had to wonder what else had happened when IV duelled his younger sister; he had asked her about it on a couple of visits, but she had kept her mouth shut firm. That only served to fuel his animosity towards IV, but again, there was nothing much he could do about it. It was already a raging inferno that hadn't yet shown any signs of dying down or flaring up – a little extra firewood thrown into it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Shark was pulled out of his musings when he realised his companion was no longer beside him.

He stared at the spot where IV should have been for a moment, before swerving around to look for him. IV was a few steps behind, having stopped in his tracks, head bent so he was staring at the ground.

"Oi, what's your problem?" Shark said, frustrated.

"We can always turn back now, can't we?" IV responded, a dry laugh escaping his lips. "I mean, surely your sister doesn't want to see the person that landed her in hospital-"

IV received an answer in the form of rushing footsteps and a fist to his face.

"You… _bastard_," Shark clutched his right wrist. That punch was long overdue. IV stumbled back from its force, clutching his face. "What happened to not running from mistakes? What happened to taking responsibility?!"

"Why would she want to see someone like _me_?!" IV retorted. Neither he nor Shark cared or were even aware that people around them were stopping as they heard the raised voices of the two duelists. "I did something so horrible to her – she should hate me for it-"

"That's for her to decide and not you. She's grateful to you." IV raised an eyebrow, uncomprehending. Shark sighed in exasperation, and continued, "look, if you didn't get her out of that fire, she could have lost her life. And… it's not only her that's grateful. As much as I hate to say this, I have to thank you for saving her."

They sized up each other for a few seconds; all of a sudden, IV grabbed Shark by the top of his sleeve and started running in the direction they were headed. Shark yelped.

"Woah- hey, _slow down_-"

"I have to face my mistakes, don't I?" IV shouted, and let go of his rival. Shark took a moment to regain his balance from being unceremoniously manhandled before sprinting to catch up with the other duelist. "Then we'll get this over and done with as soon as possible!

* * *

"Maybe this really isn't a good idea."

"Right. It isn't. But we're here anyway. And what would your dear little sister say if we turned back now…"

"Shut up."

They were in Heartland Hospital, riding one of the elevators to the floor where Rio Kamishiro's ward was. It was just the two of them in it.

"So… how is she?" IV asked, eyes firmly fixed on the doors that gleamed a dull silver in front of them.

"You'll find out later."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to be mentally prepared, is there?"

Shark paused and glanced at IV for a moment, then said, "first- to third-degree burns to more than forty-percent of her body, mostly on her forearms and legs. She was wearing long sleeves and stockings, if you recall. Her recovery is a little slow, but it's steady. However, it isn't possible for her to recover in a mere few years."

"…"

Shark felt that he may have let on too much about his sister's condition, but it may have been better this way, letting IV understand the extent of his and his father's actions. Shark had excluded a couple of details on purpose – some things were best left for him to find out with his own eyes and via his sister's mouth. "Don't say or do anything to agitate her; I'll be there to make sure you don't."

The elevator doors opened on the twelfth floor. Shark and IV stepped out of it; the latter let the former lead him, past doctors and nurses that bustled along and across the corridors. The ward was located right at the beginning of the last corridor the walked into; Shark reached for a pass card in his pocket and placed it against the scanner to verify his identity.

IV didn't know what he was expecting as he entered the ward. Every room in a hospital looks the same, don't they? He and his family had been in and out of this very hospital several times after the WDC, he should have been extremely familiar with it. The guilt must be clawing into his gut again.

IV paused as the door slid close behind him to take in the same white walls, same grey blinds drawn over the floor-to-ceiling windows, same whirring hum of machinery, same white bedsheets, same faint scent of chemicals. Somehow, the atmosphere managed to be abhorrently different.

When he mustered up the courage to take a good look at the person sitting up on the bed, he cursed Shark mentally in his head.

He didn't mention the bandages wrapped around the top of her head, covering her right eye. He didn't mention the wheelchair in the corner, accompanied by a pair of crutches. He definitely didn't mention the pressure garments she wore on her arms and other bandages that may be hidden by her clothing and the covers. He didn't mention the pale skin that tightened around her face, nothing like the heart-shape he remembered.

"Hey, sis, here's the one person you've been dying to see," Shark said as he walked forward and stood by the bed. "Hope you're happy now."

"I am, Ryoga, thank you," she said, her light, breathy voice floating across the room. She turned to look at him with her one visible eye, the short tufts of hair sticking out from under her bandages disturbed by the movement. "It's been quite a while, huh."

"… Yeah, it has," IV gulped. "You… look…"

"Not what you were expecting, right?" she grinned, exchanging a look with her brother, who smirked. IV absently noted that their mouths still had the same lopsided quality when they smiled. "Can't let you feel too good about yourself."

"I still think he's gotten off way too easily," Shark remarked, and sat in the rickety plastic chair provided. The furniture squeaked with the new weight.

It happened nearly two years ago, but IV was constantly haunted by it as if it only happened the day before. He only wanted his father back the way he used to be, and surely his father would not have any intent to harm anyone in the process, but IV's naïve ideals were shattered along with the fallen burning building that left him with a permanent scar down one side of his face and will forever change the life of a young girl.

"Ryoga, leave us."

IV's head shot up sharply; Shark's eyes widened. "Are you kidding?!" he burst out. "I'm not leaving you alone with this guy!"

"You can check on us through the window," she added. "Knowing IV, he won't try to harm me."

"… I'd be a fool if I tried to," IV followed up. She was in hospital thanks to him. Unless he had a death wish, he was going to steer clear of her as much as possible.

"And don't come back in no matter what happens, unless my life is in danger," she added. "But the possibility of that is zero to none so…"

Shark studied his sister for a moment. "I get it, I get it…" With evident reluctance, Shark got to his feet and backed out of the ward. For his sister, he would do anything. He gave one last warning to IV as he passed him. "I'm watching you."

"Duly noted."

* * *

She smiled at him. She didn't seem capable of not smiling, and it was getting on his nerves.

"Stop smiling," IV finally said, averting his gaze.

"Why?"

"It's… creepy. Stop it."

"My doctor told me to smile more, you know. It's better for my facial muscles."

IV stayed silent. What could he say? 'Are you alright?' Of course she wasn't. 'Are you feeling better?' He was… afraid of how she would answer to that. There were so many things he wanted to ask her, to tell her, but his lips would not form the words he wanted to say. And when it seemed as if he had found something to say, the words stuck in the back of his throat.

"Ryouga beat you in a duel, didn't he? In the WDC," she started. IV loosened his fingers (only then did he realise how tightly he had clenched them).

"Yeah, he did."

"He wouldn't shut up about it then. Man, now he's accomplished something I couldn't."

"Ryouga got lucky, is all," he grumbled. "And I wasn't all there that day."

"… Your dad, right?" at IV's questioning look and startled glance, she added, "Ryouga told me about it."

"R-Right."

IV kept his hands in his pockets, not sure where he should place them; it occurred to him belatedly that he should have brought some kind of gift along, like… a basket of fruits, or something. Anything. It was the appropriate thing to do, wasn't it?

"You could bring something along the next time you visit."

He was usually a good actor, but at times like this, it was no wonder his expression betrayed him. But… a second visit? She was already thinking of that?

"You can sit in the chair if you want, it won't bite. … I don't bite either."

IV hated her smile. It was the kind he saw on his fans when they received one of his autographs, the kind that expressed pure, unadulterated delight. He hated that her smile was directed at him. He didn't deserve it. He never gave her any reason to smile, but all the reasons to cry. She should be yelling at him, screeching, blaming him for causing her so much hurt; it would probably make him feel better, if she were to lay out every single one of his mistakes right there and then.

"Don't you blame me?" the words spilled out of their own accord.

"Hm?" she cocked her head to one side.

"Don't you hate me? Why would you let me near you at all?"

"It's no use hating you," her smile finally slipped, just a little. "It's pointless."

"_Why?_" his voice cracked.

"It's all in the past. There's nothing I can do about it. These pressure garments, these bandages, my legs… I can't change any of it. I did hate you, in the weeks after. It was all I knew I could do. Surrounded by doctors, pain, hatred… Ryoga was a complete mess. Couldn't look me in the eye a lot of the time, and he was under a lot of pressure to win the Duel Circuit… you know better than I do what went off there."

IV grunted.

"It hurt, all over, as if the fire was still raging, burning up everything everywhere. The doctors said I had a thirty-five percent chance of survival, you know? I was almost ready to accept that I won't live past each day that went by; sometimes I just wanted to end it there and then… but I didn't."

"… You don't blame me at all? Not one bit?"

"There's no reason to. I owe my life to you."

"I hurt you," IV insisted. "I shouldn't have played that card, I should have known that there would be a price to pay for it, I should have seen the cruel person my father had become, I should have-"

"Stop it!"

She had raised her voice, slightly breaking at the end in her haste to spit out the word. Her one visible eye glistened as she bit her lower lip.

"But… Rio-"

"I did not ask for you only to watch you beat yourself up over and over again," she spat out, her smile disappearing for a moment. IV promptly shut up, almost biting his tongue in the process. Her shoulders sagged as her lips tugged back up. "I had a lot of time to think, just lying here, staring at the ceiling, thinking, and thinking, and thinking… and then, I knew that what happened to me, I can't change it. I had to accept it. I'm here, alive. Every breath I take is an indication of that. And I have you to thank for it."

"That does not excuse anything-"

"Come here for a second."

IV eyed Rio with scepticism as he stayed rooted to the spot. He tried to count the months since they last saw each other (when chunks of concrete and steel beams and that fierce heat were crashing down around them). Eighteen months. Maybe nineteen. Any sense of time was lost to him after he and III were sent to the facility. It did seem a lot of time to think, he reckoned, when you didn't have anything else to do.

"Hey, I'm not repeating myself. Come. Here."

IV shuffled one foot forward, then the other. It took only a moment to walk the short distance from the door to the bed, but it felt like an eternity to him. He sat down in the chair Ryoga previously occupied, shifting in it slightly. It made him uncomfortable to be so close to Rio. If he just stretched out an arm he could just touch her face-

Alternately, she could touch his.

"You didn't get off unscathed," she noted, a thumb tracing down his scar. IV gulped. His entire body went rigid as her covered hand rested on his cheek. "It kind of suits you."

"… I hate it," IV sucked in a shuddering breath of medically-scented air. "Whenever I look at myself in the mirror, this scar," he grasped Rio's hand and tried to lightly pull it away, but she resisted, adamant. "This scar is a reminder of my mistakes. That it's my fault you're like this, and that I couldn't save my own father. I couldn't stop him."

"But everything's alright now, isn't it? I mean, walking is still painful so I can't do it for very long, but the doctor says I can duel in a few months. And since I can see with my left eye now I can watch AR duels! Look on the bright side, this isn't like you." She pressed her other hand to his other cheek and _squeezed_. "Smile!"

IV blinked, at first in shock at Rio's move, then in mortification. "Seriously- stop that!" IV grabbed her wrists and removed them from his face. Rio giggled freely at her bold actions that had elicited a chortle from his lips. "I'm smiling now. Happy?"

"Very!"

IV found that her smile wasn't as hateful… if it had been at all. It was all in his head. He couldn't seem to tug his lips back down too (even though a voice continued telling him no, you don't deserve this, no). For the first time since he entered the room, he found it in him to relax. He rested his elbows on his knees, hands dangling free.

"If you can't forgive yourself, at least know that I forgive you, okay?"

IV nodded. He was thankful that Rio no longer blamed him for what happened to her, although he still wished that she would in some way. Forgiving himself would not happen anytime in the near future, but Rio's smile, her willingness to bury the past behind her… he felt as if he should return the favour, try to forgive himself. It would take ages, scars would remain, but IV was one who had realised that long ago.

But then, scars weren't supposed to hurt. They were supposed to seal up old wounds.

"Ryoga wasn't watching us," Rio suddenly said. IV raised an eyebrow, and turned to glance beyond the glass panel. No Shark in sight. "He trusts you a lot more than he lets on, really."

"Tch. I really don't like that guy," IV smirked wryly as he looked back at Rio. "I should get a rematch from him."

"Not before I get my turn against you. We didn't finish our duel, remember?"

"But, that duel-"

"I hope you destroyed that card by the way. We'll continue where we left off, but in a table-top duel. That alright with you?"

"… Yeah, I guess…"

There won't be any life-threatening risks, there would be nothing at stake. That card was long gone from his possession; it, along with the other cards from the Barian World, had been destroyed by Byron Arclight's own hands. It would be a simple, friendly match between two duelists. Yeah, they could handle that.

"Pass me some water, won't you? It's been a while since I've been able to talk so much."

There was a pitcher on the table beside the bed. IV filled the glass beside it with water and handed it to Rio.

"I miss duelling," Rio sighed wistfully and took a sip (IV took the glass when she was done and placed it back on the table). "I haven't touched my deck in ages."

"Well… if you get out of the hospital fast enough, you'll see it soon. … How much longer will you have to stay here?"

"A few more months at the most. They're trying to pry my right eye open – which shouldn't be much longer now – and it's more convenient to get to my physiotherapy sessions in the hospital… that reminds me!" Rio clapped her hands – and IV started a little from the loud noise, anxious that the skin under the pressure garments may still be fragile and be hurt from the force, but Rio didn't show any outward sign of pain – and continued in enthusiasm, "you should join me!"

"Join… what?"

"My physiotherapy session. This Friday. Five in the evening," Rio twiddled her thumbs; her voice dropped slightly. "Will you be here?"

"Ryoga will be here too, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"… Sure, I'll be here," he knew he would be once she had stated her request. The one thing he and Shark wanted in common, was for Rio's swift recovery. He'd try to be civil.

Their conversation drifted from there. IV wasn't sure if he should leave, and Rio probably didn't know if she had anything more to say. She _had_ spoken a whole lot. They exchanged a few more mundane words, laughed a little, but they had faltered mid-sentence and IV had forgotten what they had been idly chatting about in the first place. The silence, while awkward, was comfortable enough. They were saved when Ryoga re-entered the ward.

"Rio, tomorrow we- _why are you still here?!"_ Shark's voice boomed across the ward and corridor, prompting a chorus of shushes from the staff in the background.

"I could leave right now, if you like," IV said, making a show of standing up and stretching his arms over his head. "I'll remember to bring a fruit basket next time."

"It's been twenty minutes! Wait, what fruit basket?" Shark interjected, but was ignored.

"See you this Friday," IV grinned down at Rio, who beamed back and waved cheerily as he walked out of the ward, brushing against the shoulder of one flabbergasted older brother. Their voices faded in the distance.

"Friday? _Rio_-"

"I can explain, Ryoga-"

* * *

There were many decisions IV regretted. He had never thought of being given a second chance to set things right – he never earned it. But when an opportunity to make amends was presented to him, he can only return than magnanimity with all he can.

_Rio._

_Thank you._

* * *

A/N: I didn't feel a lot for Accidentshipping when I started writing this (right after episode 58 aired), but as I wrote on and off for the past month or so, my love for this pairing grew and grew and _grew_...

Still not very confident of how I handled IV's characterisation, or Shark's, for that matter. Although of course I'm most worried about Rio's since all we've seen of her are in flashbacks.

_Revised: 12/09/12_


End file.
